I'm writing a novel and one of my characters is Russian and has some history behind him. I'm half asleep and it's 11pm, I apologize for anything stupid or misphrased.

I don’t really understand how the Soviet Union worked and I don’t know much about Russian culture, please help me gain knowledge, I would like some books too to extend my research, if there are any museums or places I can interview experts/more people, please tell me. I can’t travel to Russia yet nor can I speak Russian yet. Should I ask this elsewhere? I’m also going to interview people in New York, is there any questions I should ask or avoid?

Here are the questions I will ask them:

What did you miss the most about the Soviet Union? What was your childhood like?

Did you have anything against it? When did these feelings arise?

What did it mean to be Soviet? What was life like?

What was it like when you first emigrated here? What overwhelmed or surprised you?

What did you see in America that you realized that your country was totally wrong about?

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Please tell me everything you can and I preferably want the context to be 1930s-1960s:

What was life like throughout the Soviet era?

What was rich about it in the sense of culture, film, media .etc?

What were the consequences of showing your dislike for it or wanting to immigrate? When were emigration policies most loose?

How did people express their hate? How did they sense that something was wrong in the system they were living in? About how many people thought this?

Was it possible for a foreigner and a Soviet to elope? If they bear a child, let’s say the mother is from France and the father is Russian, would the child be able to live in France? Can the father move along and live with them? Would the child/family be able to go to Russia to visit/have a vacation?

For example, if this child who was let’s say, a prodigy pianist and he moved to France but decides to come back to visit to perform as an adult, although he has moved to other styles of music that are more Western and he becomes quite well known.. he promises to conform to the authorities and play what is appropriate, will he be allowed to come back?

Was rock heavily condemned by the authorities?

How hard was it to emigrate? Was there any consequences (for wanting) to emigrate? How hard was it to visit countries out of the Soviet Union?

What was smuggled that everyone wanted/used? How hard was it to smuggle something?

What are some characteristics of the culture during the Soviet era?

Did TV commericals exist? When were TVs introduced into the households?

Was entrepreneurship possible? How did that work? Could anyone get rich off it? If their companies existed before the Soviet Union arised how would that work?

Did queuing for food/necessities always exist throughout the Soviet era?

How strong was Russophobia throughout Europe and the USA? What would’ve been the degree of this hatred someone would receive (Europe vs. USA)? Would a celebrity of Russian descent during the Cold War era receive much discrimination in the USA?

What was it like to be Jewish? I noticed there are a lot of Russian Jewish diaspora in New York, was there anything against them? When/why did most of them emigrate?

What was the view on homosexuality? What would happen to someone if they were caught doing something or suspected that they were gay?